A village that lives in fear of Mungiki raid

They say the law is an ass, but for residents of Gathaithi village, in Mathira East, where 29 people were brutally killed by people said to be Mungiki members, the law simply does not exist.

“There are no laws in the country, there is no government,” says a bitter Ann Wanjiku Maina.

Her son, James Muriuki Maina, would be among this year’s KCSE examination candidates at Muragara Secondary School. It was not meant to be — he was among the 29 people brutally hacked to death on April 21.

Men and women, young and old in the lush green village of Gathaithi are still baffled by last weekend’s release of  22 people arrested in connection with the massacre that shocked the world six months ago.

“That was not justice, that was foolishness,” said a young man who only identified himself as Maina.

With last week’s release, he says, comes new clouds of fear - fear that the angel of death might strike again, as he did on that fateful night six months ago.

On what the villagers now refer to as the night of death, members of the outlawed Mungiki sect on a revenge mission surrounded the village at dawn.

First, they set a house on fire with three farm workers inside. And when scores of villagers responded to the distress calls, the sect members descended on them with machetes, clubs and axes.

Although police officers still patrol the narrow rough roads of the village, villagers say no State security machinery can ever take away the fear that lurks between the lush green tea farms.

“Sometimes we do not sleep, a dog barks at night and you start thinking they (the Mungiki) are coming again,” said Jennifer Njogu, 24.

Both relatives and survivors of the massacre expressed anger at Friday’s release of the suspects. They said the release of the suspects would only add to the fear and anxiety that still reigns in the village.

“They (the attackers) will come again, I know they will,” says Macharia Muriuki, 38.

The father of two is still nursing scars on his skull— a painful reminder of the night of death.  He barely survived the ruthless attack.

The attackers slashed his head with machetes, and left him for dead. For one month, he lay unconscious at Karatina district hospital.

To date, he still goes for weekly clinic at the hospital. The brutal attack, he says, affected his eyes. “I nearly died. I regained consciousness after a month,” the father of two said.

Last weekend’s release, he said, was a mockery of justice. And with the suspects still roaming free, Mr Macharia now fears for his life.

As for Ms Faith Muthoni Thairu, last weekend’s release of the people she believes killed her husband has driven her beyond the realms of fear. With the court ruling, she says, the law had taken away her last line of defence. 

The murderers of her husband, she says, now walk free. If they choose to finish the job they started by killing her husband, who else will protect her?
Villagers interviewed said justice had been denied to 29 of their own who were brutally murdered.

“That was not justice,” said Mr Gerald Gichuki Miringa, 89, on the last week’s release of the suspects.

His two sons—Peterson, 49, and Daniel, 41, were among the 29 people hacked to death on the fateful night. Last Friday’s judgment, he said, baffled him.

“If indeed those that were set free were innocent, let the government tell me who killed my sons,” says the old man.

Another family

But the law is indeed as ass. A few yards from Mr Macharia’s home, another family expressed their satisfaction with Friday’s judgment; the family of 19-year-old Patrick Githinji, who was among the 22 set free last weekend over the massacre.

Patrick, the only boy in the family of five, celebrated his 19th birthday in King’ong’o maximum security prison, for a crime his family says he did not commit.

His young wife Mary Wangui, 18, is overjoyed that her equally young husband was set free. So is Patrick’s mother, who refused to tell her name.

The family insist he was innocent. “How can he be guilty when he was arrested on his way to condole with his two relatives who were murdered that night?” posed his mother. Patrick has since fled to Nairobi, fearing reprisals from angry villagers.